Redefining Home
by Darkly Dreaming
Summary: Annie faces the consequences of living in the moment. Jeff is more than willing to help. Set after Pascal's Triangle Revisited. AU.


A/N: I couldn't get this scenario out of my head, no matter how much fic I read where it didn't happen. I just...I _NEED_ this to be a thing, even if it's just here in my imagination.

Immediately after 1x25 Pascal's Triangle Revisited.

Beta'd by the lovely Leila, aka darkestimeline on Tumblr. Thanks, dear! You were invaluable!

* * *

The first kiss, which was really their second kiss, was mostly because Annie was still living in the moment. She'd wanted to kiss Jeff again ever since the debate, but things were never quite right. Vaughn, Slater, Britta, awkwardness, whatever. But she was kind of on a decision-making-streak and just went for it. Just to do it. She didn't expect anything to come from it, especially after hearing about both Slater and Britta professing their love for him not five minutes previously and him running from them.

But then Jeff went in for more and suddenly everything felt right. In that moment neither cared that she was 12 years his junior, or that he had a love triangle mess to straighten out, or that not an hour ago she had been in a car going to Delaware following a hippie with a hacky-sack scholarship.

In that moment it was only two friends realizing they were attracted to each other.

They eventually broke apart, but kept eye contact, breathing heavily. Jeff took Annie's hand and one of her bags and led her to his still-Chang'd Lexus. He drove them to his apartment in silence.

Jeff unlocked his apartment door and dropped her bag on the floor. He toed off his shoes, and dipped down to kiss her again. Annie dropped the bag she was holding and held onto his shoulders with one hand while pulling off her flats with the other, kicking them over by his own shoes. Jeff lifts her by the waist and Annie wraps her legs around his hips and they're on their way to his bedroom where they fall onto the bed. His jacket and shirt are the first to go. Her dress is soon pooled on the floor next to them, and his pants aren't far behind. It isn't until they feel their skin gently touching that they stop what they're doing and each take in the other.

White lace bra, subtly sexy. Black cotton panties? Sexy, but not so subtle. The contrasting sight brings a noise from the back of his throat somewhere between a groan and a gargle. Probably not sexy on his part, but involuntary responses, and all.

Lying there on his bed in only his socks and boxer briefs, it finally hits him what he'd been about to do: take advantage of a teenage girl who decided to 'live in the moment.' He almost forgot this when she straddled him and flipped her hair over her shoulder, but the tiny silk bow on the front of her bra kind of brought it back to him.

"Annie," he tried, and it was a little too breathy for his liking so he tried again a little louder. "Annie." She ran her lithe fingers down his chest and his eyes rolled back a little, but he grabbed her hips and finally got through. "Annie!"

Annie finally stopped and looked him in the eye again. Her kiss-swollen lips and her mussed hair were almost enough to make him forget himself again, but he made an impossible effort to remain focused. "Annie, we can't do this. Not like this."

Her face fell and he felt like such a dick, but this was something he had to make her see. He sat up and nuzzled her neck, making sure she knew it wasn't a rejection. Then he couldn't help himself so he kissed her collarbone, which made her gasp slightly and squeeze his shoulders. Keeping his forehead in the crook of her neck he whispered, "This, us - right now it would be wrong. Two women just professed their love for me and then you kissed me...I'm on a bit of a narcissistic high right now and I don't want to take advantage of you. And you just broke up with Vaughn. It's a bit of a rebound for both of us and you deserve so much better."

Annie pressed a kiss into Jeff's perfect hair and nodded her understanding. "I don't want things to be awkward between us anymore. Can we just decide to not be awkward around each other from now on?"

Jeff smiled his most genuine smile and nodded. "I'd like that. But only if I can keep kissing you, 'cause I don't think I can keep my hands to myself after this."

"I'm okay with that," Annie smiled in response, then added, "But only if I can stay here tonight."

Jeff captured her lips again, and it was as innocent a kiss as could be had in Jeff Winger's bedroom in their underwear.

~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~

Annie woke up first and watched Jeff sleep for a few minutes. He looked actually care-free in sleep. Not the carefully constructed mask of indifference he usually wore, but a truly relaxed, lips-parted kind of peace that only came with deep REM sleep uninterrupted by memorable dreams. Annie smiled and trailed a finger down his stubbly cheek. He didn't even twitch.

She got up and took her things into the bathroom to shower. Since she thought she would be moving to Delaware, she had provisions for at least a week, so she used her own shower supplies and changed into clean clothes. Jeff was still asleep when she finished so she went into the kitchen to see what kind of breakfast things he had.

Jeff woke up oddly cold, yet relaxed, to the smell of coffee and pancakes. He used the facilities, brushed his teeth (morning breath was never acceptable), and put on his silk pajama pants before joining her in the kitchen. He took the mug of coffee she slid over to him from across the bar. "Y'know, if this is the kind of wake-up I get, maybe you should stay over more often."

Annie smirked. "And what would I get out of it? Other than my own wonderful pancakes and your expensive coffee?" She flipped a pancake like a master chef and slid it onto a plate and she was so confident in her abilities that he almost hurdled the bar just to kiss her. Instead, he slowly slid around it into the kitchen proper and wrapped his arms around her waist, planting a kiss on her neck. "I could make it worth your while."

"Oh, like last night?" she mocked, lightly elbowing him in the ribs. She took his closeness and demeanor to mean it was okay for her to turn around in his arms and snake hers around his neck.

Jeff put on his mock-serious face and rebutted, "Hey, now. You can't honestly tell me that wasn't a great night's sleep. My bed is fantastic and the Egyptian cotton sheets are worthy of some sort of award." Then he grinned. "Not to mention I make a great pillow, or so I assume from the dried drool on my chest when I woke up."

Scandalized, Annie gasped. "I did not drool on you. And even if I did, I would've had the decency to wipe it off before you woke up." She turned back to the stove and turned the burner off. But Jeff was right behind her again and wouldn't let her leave the kitchen. He mumbled into her ear, "If I cared I would've told you so." Then he kissed her temple and reached for his plate of pancakes, sidestepping her to the small table in the area between the kitchen and living room he designated as a dining room.

Any outsider looking in would never guess they hadn't had sex the night before.

~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~

They were watching a Law & Order: SVU marathon on USA when Annie unexpectedly spoke.

"Jeff?"

"Yeah?"

"I've been thinking."

"Do you every really stop?"

"Ha ha. Funny. But seriously, I've been thinking." She sat up and faced him. "I kind of don't really have a place to live anymore. I mean, I decided to move out of my tiny studio apartment and...might've sold a lot of my stuff." She ducked her head and bit her lip, slightly embarrassed to be asking. "Do you think...maybe you could help me look for another place? I really don't want to have to ask my bubbe for help, and I know my parents would never even think to help me now." At Jeff's confused look she elaborated. "They think I need to do everything myself now that I'm out of rehab. So as soon as I was clean they kicked me out. We don't talk much."

Jeff listened to all of this and opened his mouth to say 'Annie, it'll be fine, your parents won't think any less of you for not running away with a hippie with tiny nipples,' but what came out instead was...nothing. She looked so worried and almost close to tears, and there was no way he could handle a sad Annie right now, not after last night, and especially not after this morning.

What he should have said was 'Of course I'll help you, Annie, we're friends, and that's what friends do, they help each other out.' He was so close to saying it.

Instead, what he said was "You could stay here until you find somewhere, if going back to your parents, or...bubby is that awful to you. God knows I wouldn't ever want to live with my mother again."

And as soon as the words left his mouth he realized what it was he just said.

Without a second thought, as if inviting female friends-of-possibly-quesitonable-benefits to live with him for an indeterminate amount of time were something he did every other week.

He didn't dare breathe, let alone rescind his offer.

Annie couldn't believe his words either; she was just as shocked at his offer as he. She hesitated a moment, then, "Seriously?"

The tiny bit of hope in her giant blue eyes was enough to cement the decision in Jeff's mind. He couldn't say no to Annie. "On two conditions: You have to keep making me breakfast and I get to kiss you whenever I want."

That tiny spark of hope ignited a barrell of joy and she launched herself at him. "Oh my god, Jeff, thank you so much!" She was so happy he couldn't help but put one of his conditions into play and kiss her silent.

When they broke apart, still smiling, he said, "So how about pizza to celebrate?"

~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~

As Jeff and Annie were digging into their third and second slices of canadian bacon respectively, Jeff's phone started ringing.

In all the excitement of the day Jeff had forgotten about Britta and Slater the night before and it was coming back to bite him in the ass.

"Hello."

"_I don't love you._"

"Okaaay."

"_I just wanted to one-up Slater, that was the first thing I thought of._"

"Glad we cleared that up."

"_So we're good?_"

"I am if you are."

"_Good. Ok. Bye._"

"Bye."

Annie kept her eyes on the tv throught the phone call, but couldn't keep to herself when he hung up.

"Was that Britta?" she asked, trying to be casual and sort of failing. She was a terrible actress.

"Yeah," he put the phone back on the coffee table and put his arm around Annie's shoulders. "She doesn't love me and we're good."

"Oh. Ok."

~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~

Annie had been staying with Jeff for almost 4 weeks when Pierce invited them all to his estate for his Fourth of July party.

Jeff had cleared drawer space, closet space, and bathroom space for her. He'd gotten used to waking up to Annie's hair in his face and Annie had gotten used to just lying in bed for an hour after waking up. They hardly ever left the apartment unless they needed something. They still hadn't had sex.

So when they each got their Facebook invites to the 3-day weekend party, they were so used to each others' uninterrupted (and nightly) company that both were wary of attending. Logic and social imparative dictated that they at least show up for the barbecue and fireworks.

It's not that they were necessarily afraid of the group finding out they were together (Jeff didn't really think the term 'dating' applied to their situation). No, it's mostly that they were unsure of how the group would react to finding out that Annie was temporarily living with Jeff.

"Ugh. Shirley and Britta will probably invite me to live with them instead of you," she sighed in annoyance and fell backward onto the couch. "Pierce will be Pierce, and Abed will make movie or tv references; those I can handle." She propped her feet on Jeff's legs on the other end of the couch. "Troy is a bit of a wild card, but I'm sure he won't be too off the wall. He is living with Pierce, after all. Kind of in the same boat I am."

Jeff squeezed her ankles and spoke soothingly. "Annie, it'll be fine. After a while they'll be fine with us being together, but who said they ever had to know you live here?" He moved up to her calves and started massaging. "And why do you care if they do know? I don't, and I'm the one they're likely to hate more."

They were quiet a moment, Jeff still massaging her legs. Then Annie sighed again. "You're right. I don't know why I care. It's none of their business. Let's go, but only the one night."

Jeff agreed. "Yeah, I don't wanna sleep at Pierce's two nights in a row."

~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~

That weekend (the actual weekend, not the Friday before) they both packed a small bag each and got into Jeff's newly-repaired Lexus. They were at Pierce's in less than an hour. They decided to keep their stuff in the car for now. They also decided to pretend that they didn't know it was supposed to be a three day party, hence their absence.

"Annie!" Shirley and Britta were the first to notice their arrival. "Jeff! Why didn't you guys come yesterday?"

"Because yesterday was the third?" Jeff said. "The party's today. Are you telling me you guys showed up a day early?"

"Duh-doy, it's a three day weekend, dummy," Britta said, leading the way to the patio where everyone but Troy was chowing down on hamburgers.

Abed, of course, was the first to notice that Jeff and Annie were actively trying to not hold hands and still look casual while walking. "You're dating," he said in that oddly creepy, blunt way that he blurted out things that he knew were true. "You arrived together, a day late, and it's extremely obvious that you're trying to make it seem like you're not together." He blinked. "You're trying too hard."

Annie was about to protest, but Jeff just grabbed her hand and said, "Alright, fine, you found us out. We're together." And before anyone could protest Jeff continued. "Twelve years difference, I'm a terrible influence, blah blah blah, we don't care. Drop it. It's none of your business."

Troy, the only one missing up until now, ran out of the house and held up a bag of plastic cups. "Found 'em! What'd I miss?"

~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~

After a while the group got used to their togetherness and stopped worrying about it.

Until, that is, they noticed that they only brought one overnight bag for both of them.

"It's no big deal," Jeff said as they were being showed their rooms. "I'll just take my stuff and you can keep the bag." Which would've worked if they had been able to sleep. As it was, Annie had gotten so used to using Jeff's shoulder as a pillow that she couldn't get comfortable. She decided to risk it and go sleep with him.

She knocked lightly on his door and let herself in, silently hoping he had been unable to sleep as well and it wasn't just her.

It wasn't. Jeff was lying there with his arms behind his head, staring at the ceiling when she opened the door. A smile broke out on his face. "I was just about to do the same thing." Then he made room for her in the full size bed and wrapped his arms around her small frame. Immediately he felt better and sleep claimed them quickly.

~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~

The next morning they woke refreshed and joined the others in the kitchen for breakfast. Only Troy and Abed were missing. Apparently they woke up early and took Pierce's boat to "go fishing." Of course that meant they were probably reenacting some movie, or filming something. They were proved right when the two trudged back to the house soaking wet but smiling.

Jeff had had enough of the festivities and 'togetherness' but wasn't sure if Annie would allow him to leave yet. He tried to give her hints that he wanted to go, but nothing was getting to her until finally he pulled her aside and kissed her, basically in front of everyone. Then he whispered in her ear, "I'm ready to ditch this place and go home if you are."

When he said 'home' her first thought was of Jeff's aparment, and that realization struck a chord in her. She smiled and nodded.

Jeff must've had the same realization, because his next words surprised her and warmed her heart in an unexpectedly great way. "Y'know...if we don't find you an apartment soon...you might have to just continue living with me." His words and face were playful, but his tone was genuine and heartfelt and it made her melt a little.

"I think I might be fine with that."

And home they went.


End file.
